“How did he take the disappointment?”

“He said he would be revenged on her.”

“Are you sure he used such words?”

“Yes.  Loiter heard him as well as myself.”

“I did, sir,” said Loiter.

“Do either of you know any more of this affair?”

“No, sir,” replied both boys together.

“You may go,” said the President, adding “that these witnesses had done a good deal in establishing proof against Riot; for it was pretty certain that no one but himself could have been in possession of the top at the time the crime was committed, and it also appeared that he had declared a malicious intention against the woman, which it was highly probable he would put into execution.  As the court were debating about the next step to be taken they were acquainted that Jack, the widow’s son, was waiting at the school-door for admission; and a person being sent out for him, Riot was found threatening the boy, and bidding him go home about his business.  The boy, however, was conveyed safely into the room, when he thus addressed himself to the President: 

“Sir, and please your worship,” said Jack, “as I was looking about this morning for sticks in the hedge over against our house, I found this buckle.  So I thought to myself, ’Sure this must belong to the rascal that broke our window.’  So I have brought it to see if any one in the school would own it.”

“On which side of the hedge did you find it?”

“On the other side from our house, in the close.”

“Let us see it Gentlemen,” said the President, “this is so smart a buckle that I am sure I remember it at once, and I dare say you all do.”

“It is Riot’s!” exclaimed all together.

“Has anybody observed Riot’s shoes to-day?” the President asked.

“Yes; he has got them tied with strings,” a boy replied.

“Very well, then, gentlemen, we have nothing more to do than to draw up the evidence we have heard, and lay it before his lordship.  Jack, you may go home.”

“Pray, sir, let somebody go with me, for I am afraid of Riot, who has just been threatening me at the door.”

“Master Bold will please to go along with the boy.”

The minutes of the court were then drawn up, and the President took them to the Judge’s chamber.  After the Judge had perused them, he ordered an indictment to be drawn up against Peter Riot:  “For that he meanly and clandestinely and with malice aforethought had broken three panes in the window of Widow Careful with a certain instrument called a top, whereby he had committed an atrocious injury upon an innocent person, and had brought a disgrace upon the society to which he belonged.”

At the same time he sent an officer to inform Master Riot that his trial would come on the next morning.